Hunger
Modeling Harlem Children's Zone
Published August 08, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
I'm sort of putting this post up today as a reminder to myself to come back to it - it's a WaPo profile of Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada's unique, high-intensity community & human development organization that President Obama sees as an anti-poverty and neighborhood development model.
This is the starting point for the Harlem Children's Zone: the womb. Geoffrey Canada's nonprofit has created a web of programs that begin before birth, end with college graduation and reach almost every child growing up in 97 blocks carved out of the struggling central Harlem neighborhood.
Folks over at PostBourgie are discussing a recent biography of Canada and HCZ. And I've mentioned HCZ in passing a couple times around this blog.
What do you think of this program? What's not to like? Anything?
A New Approach to the Old Food Bank Model
Published August 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Visiting the local food bank has always been viewed as somewhat of an impersonal experience chalk full of long lines, barren walls and sunken faces. You show up, wait your turn and then, if you're lucky, receive a few grocery bags full of post-expiration goods.
It is this routine that sometimes causes people to avoid taking advantage of a food bank's services, even if they desperately need them.
Sasha Abramky, in his book Breadline USA (which I've referenced before), visits a food pantry in Sacramento, California and offers this reflection:
I stopped at the table with whittled-down pencils and short charity request forms to fill in. Once inside, I made a U-turn, going back down the interior side of the brick wall that I had just advanced along from the outside. To my left was a painted wall with a sheet of metal, etched with years of graffiti; to my right, dull white-and-blue painted bricks...This wasn't a supermarket without cash registers, a consumer place of choice, of lifestyles realized. It was, I felt, rather a place for the spreading of tuberculosis or the flu, as well as every other germ, real and imagined; it was truly a last-stop hotel, a room where dignity came to die.
It was probably the desire to move away from such an institutional setting that pushed the University District Food Bank (UDFB) in Seattle to develop a new way for clients to get their hands on much-needed food.
A Nation of Hustlers?
Published August 03, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
(Photo of "Hunger Amidst Plenty" by Kamal H.)
I have to ask: why do so many of our public policies assume the worst of human nature? Check this out from a depressing NYT piece on how unemployment benefits are going to run out by year's end for a frightening # of unemployed Americans:
Traditionally, many economists have been leery of prolonged unemployment benefits because they can reduce the incentive to seek work. But that should not be a concern now because jobs remain so scarce, said Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard.
For every job that becomes available, about six people are looking, Dr. Katz said. “Unemployment insurance gives income to families who are really suffering and can’t find work even if they are hustling to look,” he said.
Look, $300 a week in unemployment benefits is nothing to sneer at, but honestly, is it really a negative incentive? It's slightly more generous than working full-time for a week at minimum wage, and it's about half of what the median hourly wage pays weekly in the US.
Why do we assume that by offering any shred of a safety net we're creating a nation of loafers, hustlers, thieves, layabouts, and their rapaciously needy offspring?
Seriously - what are the roots of these very disturbing assumptions? I don't get it.
Annie E. Casey Foundation Calls for Updated Poverty Measure
Published August 01, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
As I'm scrolling through the weekend poverty news, I see that this week the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 20th annual Kids Count report on child poverty in the U.S. The information is presented in a user-friendly on-line "data book" that I recommend checking out to learn more about the particulars of your state.
I took a look at the summary brief of the report and was pleased to see that in their recommendations for making better use of data to drive policy, that improvements include updating the US poverty measure to reflect contemporary economic and political realities. Why collect data if it's based on outmoded definitions of hardship? Excellent point! More on this below the fold.
KnoxNews.com has a handy round-up of the key findings in the report, based on data collected through 2006 (the current recession will be reflected in their next report):
The report documented improvements since 2000 in the infant mortality rate, child death rate, teen death rate, high school dropout rate, and teens not in school and not working. Four areas have worsened: low-birthweight babies, children living with jobless or underemployed parents, children in poverty, and children in single-parent families. (my emphases)
Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi - Katrina's darlings, weep - continue to rank worst among states for child well-being.
I rarely do this, but this extensive block quote from KnoxNews.com captures perfectly efforts to redefine the poverty measure is - check it out after the jump.
'Bamboozle' A Golden Rule for Some
Published July 31, 2009 @ 05:19AM PT
I'm a naysayer, a contrarian. I've always been that way. It comes in handy, especially when sorting out the abundant tomfoolery hoisted upon us by "them that have the gold," the Tarnished Golden Rule of Politics. An abundance of news, opinions and blogs about poverty-related issues illustrate how this rule works.
Recent news accounts of Wall Street's audacious behavior and self-interested medical providers illustrate the power of money in guiding (mis) behavior. Follow the money and you'll figure out this nation's and world's woes. Many in Congress and most corporations tend to follow the bucks which gets them in trouble.
Less Crime, More Hunger
Published July 30, 2009 @ 01:26PM PT
I just finished reading a very frustrating article about the impacts of the HOPE VI program's impacts on public housing residents' lives ($). For those not in the know, HOPE VI is a program that since 1992 provides federal subsidies to demolish and redevelop public housing projects as mixed-income communities. Proponents say it improves residents' lives by enabling them to live in less-poor neighborhoods with better-off neighbors and that taken together these changes will bring increased safety, economic opportunities and role models for low-income residents.
The "role modeling" thing always ticks me off, but the bigger problem with HOPE VI is that it pursued a housing demolition and development strategy as the sole means to reduce poverty and inequality. If you know anything about the myriad problems poor people face in terms of job prospects (e.g., health problems, disability, young children at home, etc.), then you'll probably be unsurprised to learn that the most recent HOPE VI assessment shows no impact on residents' economic status. None. Sigh.
But the "choice" residents face between crime and hunger is what really gets me.
Why Food Matters
Published July 30, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
I realize that for a blog that is dedicated to understanding and alleviating the sources of poverty, I talk quite a bit about food. This is mainly because I think food, at it's best, can help people rise up out of poverty; and at its worst, contribute to diet-related health problems and force farm laborers to live an undignified life of poverty and despair.
Many times in the realm of poverty work, it seems as though food is addressed only in the most simple of terms: do people have enough of it, or not?
But there are so many other reasons why food, both producing and eating it, matters to those less fortunate than most of us. Here are a few:
1) One of the single greatest indicators of a persons likeliness to become obese is income level. The rationale is simple: the less money you have available to spend on food, the more likely you are to purchase products that give you the greatest bang for your buck.
